Wessex, a territory in the SW. of England, inhabited by Saxons who landed at Southampton in 514, known as the West Saxons, and who gradually extended their dominion over territory beyond it till, under Egbert, their king, they became supreme over the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Wessel, Johann * West, Benjamin